About ATU - Acting Thru Ukubuyiselwa

"Ukubuyiselwa: to get back what belongs to you,
including your dignity"

A small group of people decided in 2001 to use their professional skills and dedicate their lives to addressing the scourge of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in the neediest areas of South Africa. The organization was formed as a request from the community of Ivory Park, to offer services to the community, by the community. Thus the beginnings were from grass root level to provide a meaningful needed service.

The violence that people had been subjected to had left them psychologically and emotionally disabled and disempowered. And of course the violence doesn't just stay with the individual, it gets carried through to the next generation, and the next......

To break this cycle there needs to be a cycle of reconciliation which needs a therapeutic thrust to be effective.

ATU - Acting Thru Ukubuyiselwa - was formed to break this cycle of violence and to offer healing and hope to children, adolescents, adults the elderly and the disabled.

ATU has established a core competence in South Africa and centres for delivering therapy in two seriously affected regions, namely Ivory Park and central Johannesburg. Funding has been received from Themba Lesizwe, Money for Mahala, Foundation for Human Rights.

ATU has gained acceptance and the trust of these communities, and have run workshops which yielded extraordinary transformation of lives. Service provision has also been rendered to these communities.

ATU has created a respected position for the local work as part of the international effort to address Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

ATU has won the support of internationally respected practitioners for their work in creating permanent change in South African society, through community based projects.

ATU has been instrumental in assisting the Youth Development Theatre Project in Ivory Park to obtain a grant from the Foundation for Human Rights and to register their own organisation.

Acting Thru Ukubuyiselwa started in 2001 initiated by the community of Ivory Park, Midrand.

The mission of the organization is to provide training for professionals and community leaders to use action methods, specifically Psychodrama, to address Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in disadvantaged communities and to conduct ongoing groups with: Disabled – quadriplegics and paraplegics, Elders, Street children, Children removed form homes due to abuse, Youth at risk and Compassion fatigue in Health Providers.

As Trauma challenges a person’s belief in their safety, attachment, trust, lifestyle, sense of belonging and ego states, safety and containment within a group setting is of utmost importance.

is used as it has been specifically developed for psychodrama with trauma survivors. This is cross cultural and provides self affirming and self empowering constructs, practical applications and techniques that are meaningful and useful for the trauma survivor.